Hagakure

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Hagakure (Kyūjitai: 葉隱; Shinjitai: 葉隠; meaning In the Shadow of Leaves), or Hagakure Kikigaki (葉隠聞書) is a practical and spiritual guide for a warrior, drawn from a collection of commentaries by the samurai, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, former retainer to Nabeshima Mitsushige, the third ruler of what is now the Saga prefecture in Japan. Tashiro Tsuramoto compiled these commentaries from his conversations with Tsunetomo from 1709 to 1716; however, it was not published until many years afterwards. Hagakure is also known as the Analects of Nabeshima or the Hagakure Analects.

The book records Tsunetomo's views on bushido, the warrior code of the samurai. Hagakure asserts that bushido is really the "Way of Dying" or living as though one was already dead, and that a samurai retainer must be willing to die at any moment in order to be true to his lord. For example, it declares, "As everything in the world is but a sham, death is the only sincerity." The tales it relates are often filled with death, killing, and suicide, mixed with stoicism.

Hagakure was not widely known during the decades following Tsunetomo's death. However, it received wider circulation at the start of the 20th century, and by the 1930s had become one of the most famous representatives of bushido thought in Japan. Hagakure remains popular among many non-Japanese who are interested in samurai culture. It is also frequently referred to as The Book of the Samurai and was featured prominently in the 1999 Jim Jarmusch film Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.

After his master died, Tsunetomo himself was forbidden to perform seppuku, a retainer's ritual suicide, by an edict of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Hagakure may have been written partially in an effort to outline the role of the samurai in a more peacetime society. Several sections refer to the "old days", and imply a dangerous weakening of the samurai class since that time.

[edit] Reference

Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Translated by William Scott Wilson, Kondansha International Ltd., 1979, ISBN 4-7700-1106-7 (Partial translation) with clara morgan